Abstract:

A prototype microfluidic dielectrophoretic(DEP) chip for cell separation and concentration based on principle of DEP was presented in this paper. The proposed microfluidic DEP chip was bonded directly with glass substrate deposited Au micro electrodes and polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS) cover plate with designed micro-channels. The effective area of positive DEP was increased by the designed electrode array which composed of several groups of opposite electrodes with different distances on the bottom of glass chip. It also made the DEP chip to capture the target cells from fluid suspension at low AC electric field. Under the condition of 3 V and 3 MHz, the capture efficiency of human red blood cell(RBC) achieved 83%. Furthermore, mixture of RBC and liver cancer cells(HepG2) was separated by capture the HepG2 on the electrode array at 5 V and 400 kHz, and the capture efficiency of HepG2 achieve 86% on the designed DEP chip.

Key words: Arrayed opposite electrodes, Microfluidic DEP chip, Separation and concentration of cells